Tag Archives: radio tartasse

Monday 26th October 2015 – AND THERE I WAS …

… deep in the arms of Morpheus, when the alarm went off. And I sat bolt upright and as I did so, all memory of where I’d been and what I’d been doing was completely wiped away.

After an early breakfast I reviewed everything that I’d written, collected up some music and then shot off to Marcillat, dodging the tractors on the way.

Recording the programmes didn’t take long, but what did take a good while was to find the events for the next month. We hadn’t been sent the dates by the tourist information office and the office was closed today. But scrounging around produced enough events to make up a decent programme or two.

Back at Liz and Terry’s, we had lunch (I had what was left over from last night) and vegan ginger cake, and Terry and I made some plans for the rest of the week.

Recording the Radio Arverne sessions was straightforward too and then Liz and I went off to do some shopping. With grapes at just €2:49 a kilo I bought a supply, but it goes without saying that they didn’t make it home.

In exchange for a coffee, Liz showed me how to use my mobile phone as a modem to power my laptop and now I can use my laptop anywhere in France provided that there’s a mobile phone signal, even if there isn’t a wi-fi signal.

Back here I had some work to catch up on and I made a quick meal too. But what has caught me by surprise was that with not having used the inverter at all today, of the 200 amp-hours of solar energy that I received today, 168 amp-hours of it went into the 12-volt immersion heater and the temperature went off the scale. Consequently I went and had a really good washing-up session of plates and dishes.

Tomorrow, what I’ll be doing depends upon the weather. If it’s raining, I’m off to Terry’s. But if it’s dry, he’s coming around here.

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Thursday 6th August 2015 – *@#&*@ç&!

Yes, tomorrow is my last day to work on this car as I’m now booked up before I go away.

And the client says that he can’t come down. Apparently he has a paying job that has come in, and my convenience is apparently so much lower than that. Well, it’s nice to know where I stand.

He says that he’ll come round on Saturday morning and finish it off, but I won’t be here. I’ll be in Montlucon. And the car had better be gone by the time that I come back as I’ll be putting Caliburn in my drive. I’m off for 9 weeks and I’m not leaving Caliburn in the lane under any circumstances. I haven’t paid all of this money for this concreting that we did last year to leave my van on the public highway.

And I also need to clean my drive, with the amount of oil that’s leaked out of this car. That has totally dismayed me.

This blasted Hyundai has totally messed up all of my plans. There’s no chance whatever now of me tiling my bathroom before I go and I wanted to have this long-done before I go.

I’ve had a major sense of humour failure over this car. And the worst of it all is that, having seen the photos that I posted on here a week or so ago, you know as well as anyone else that this vehicle won’t be going very far even if we do manage to get it going. I’ve wasted all of this time and done all of this effort for absolutely nothing and I’m sure that I won’t receive any thanks for it. I shan’t see the owner of this vehicle ever again until his next car goes wrong.

Apart from that, we were radioing today at Marcillat. Two months’ worth of programmes that we recorded for Radio Anglais
 this morning and that will take us up to the end of October with the next recording sessions pencilled in for 26th October. Just one more session, at Gerzat on Tuesday, and that will be that.

Liz and I went for a long chat afterwards and then I came back here. On the way back, I noticed that the construction work on the edge of Marcillat on the bed of the old railway line has now developed into a small petrol station. It seems that we will be having some 24-hour petrol pumps there. The Auvergne is definitely dragging itself into the 21st Century.

Back here, I had a pile of stuff to do, most of which I managed to complete, and I even managed for once to make some food this evening. This is progress.

I should have been having a day out on Monday but I’ve cancelled that now. I have too much to do, and it’s a shame that the tiling isn’t going to figure in that. I’m really fed up now.

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Tuesday 7th July 2015 – THIS IDEA …

flying shelf shower room les guis virlet puy de dome france… about a flying shelf in the bathroom seems to work okay.

You can see how it’s going to work. There’s a bracket in the false ceiling (the false ceiling will eventually go over it) and from there are two lengths of threaded rod hanging down. At the moment the threaded rod is passing right through the shelves and held up with nuts, but there will be some captive nuts fitted into the shelves and the threaded rod will be cut to size.

The threaded rod will be covered by some nice stainless steel tubing and it will all look quite nice.

This morning we braved the heat and made it to Marcillat to record the radio programmes. Things went according to plan, except that Violette fell asleep and one of our 15-minute shows ran on for almost 19 minutes. She’ll have fun editing that down.

We went for a coffee and a good chat afterwards, and then I came home. I installed myself in the bedroom as 34°C in the attic was rather too much, but that didn’t work as I crashed out for a good hour – and I mean “crashed out”. And seeing as how I was in bed last night for 22:30, that was rather astonishing.

fitting bolt shower room door les guis virlet puy de dome franceAfter lunch I’ve fitted the bolt on the bathroom door (not that we need it but still, you never know) and then I attacked the shelving. That’s all cut to shape and drilled out where necessary (it’s having a cable run through it to power things like shavers and hair clippers) and now varnished, as is the shelf that I made the other day.

And surprise surprise, I was actually working at 22:30 this evening. I put the first coat on before knocking off at 19:30, but when I went out to take the stats, the first coat was dry so I put a second coat on.

Tomorrow, I’ll finish the shelving (I hope), plasterboard everything in, and then carry on with the ceiling.

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Monday 6th July 2015 – NOW HERE’S AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION.

Our Hero – “is it tomorrow that we are recording at Marcillat?”
Liz – “that’s right – at 09:30”
Our Hero – “ohhh” … pause … “I suppose that I’d better go home then”

Yes, the Bane of Britain has done it again hasn’t he? Gone to Marcillat on the wrong day. Still, it could have been worse. It was a nice drive out and in any case, at least it was a day early and not a day late.

And I’d been on my travels in the night. I was in Glasgow, the funniest city in Europe (everyone who goes there comes back in stitches) organising some kind of football training, and then I’d taken the Metro with Strawberry Moose. The train was stuck in the station for a while and so, knowing that I would awaken as soon as the train set off, I allowed myself to go into a deep sleep. But before I did, I took my trousers off and hung them over the back of the seat in front. Sure enough, I awoke as soon as the train moved, and I prepared to alight at the next station. But I couldn’t find my trousers. There was a pair of shorts there but they were nothing to do with me. Of course I made a fuss and the lady driver told me that seeing as how we hadn’t reached the first stop, no-one could have alighted from the train with my trousers. However, a couple of people had boarded the train and alighted before it had set off. I carried on the argument and a couple of the passengers started to become agitated. But none of this was finding my trousers.
Ironically, I’d been reading a little about the Glasgow Underground yesterday evening and also something comnected with North-West Glasgow and the Underground, which was where all of this was going on.

My morning wasn’t wasted though, as I did two more radio programmes – or, at least, half-done them. These are the rock programmes for Radio Anglais and I’ve done the miscellaneous programmes for two more months. I just need to do the two live concerts and find a radio commentary for one of the programmes.

After lunch, I made the shelf that will fit between the door and the stud wall by the beichstuhl. And the new Bosch circular saw – nice and lightweight, it cut through a pine plank as if there was nothing there. A nice neat cut, no need to sand it down, no whining, no rattling, and the inverter showed no sign of distress. This was the best circular saw that I’ve ever used (and so it ought to be at the price that I paid for it) and if it lasts the pace (because one or two people are a little sceptical about it) it’ll be just the job.

I also cut down a 300mm plank into 2x150mm planks, and the circular saw hardly broke wind doing it. But do you remember ages ago when I told you that the 600mm pine planks were actually 605mm? Well, the 300mm planks are actually 295mm. So much for Brico Depot’s precise measuring.

I had yet another shower to cool me down afterwards (I’m having my money’s worth from the home-made solar shower) and made a mega-red-pepper-and-lentil curry for the next 4 days. I may as well start the week as I mean to go on.

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Sunday 5th July 2015 – WHY CAN’T THE DAWN CHORUS …

… have a day off too? Here I was on a Sunday morning aiming for a lie-in and they all start up at about 06:30. Mind you, they did have something to start up about because we were having a rainstorm – the first rain for about 10 days.

It didn’t last long, though, but long enough to disrupt my plans to have a really good lie-in, and I was up and about by 08:20.

And I’d been on my travels too during the night. I was with a lady of the female sex but I can’t remember now who it was. Anyway, it concerned “Ye-ye”. And if you want to know who “ye-ye” might be, ask any Belgian child. In these days of recomposed families, it’s quite often the case that a child’s grandmother (“mé-mé”) would have a husband or partner who would not be the child’s grandfather (pé-pé). So he would be “ye-ye”. And in this case, “ye-ye” was living with the children of his wife but was having a rough time there. Consequently I made the suggestion “why doesn’t he come to live with us?” and much to my surprise, the lady of the female sex agreed (I never ever thought she would and I was only half-hearted in my suggestion) and so I had to crack on and decorate the spare room.

Meanwhile, back here, after breakfast I checked over the radio programme that we will be recording tomorrow for Radio Tartasse, and then I did some work on the Radio Arverne stuff. The programme for the week 4th to 10th … errrr … November. Yes, I’m forging ahead.

But I couldn’t keep it up. The heat overwhelmed me round about 11:00 and even the fan couldn’t cool the place down enough. In the end I took the fan and the laptop and went down to the bedroom where there was a much-more-moderate 29°C and I stayed down there till supper time. I had a bit of a doze for a while and then just – I was going to say “chilled out” but that was far from the truth given the weather. There wasn’t much point in doing anything else.

So tomorrow we’re recording a round of radio programmes – the August shows for Radio Tartasse. Liz is off for a couple of weeks and won’t be back until after the first date of broadcasting. For that reason we need to do it this week.

With me being off to Canada mid-August, we’ll have to record the September and October programmes at the beginning of August. And this is the reason why I’m trying to push ahead.

And tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be fitting the two missing shelves in the bathroom and then carrying on with the ceiling.

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Friday 3rd July 2015 – THIS MUST BE SOME KIND OF A RECORD

Today’s temperature outside reached a massive 39.4°C and that can’t be far short of a record. No wonder I had a hard time starting work today.

This morning I wasn’t as bright and breezy as yesterday, even though I had the Dawn Chorus again giving me a helping hand. After breakfast I mooched around for a little and then plucked up the courage to attack the radio programmes.The second lot for Radio Arverne are now half-completed and should be done by Sunday, and I have to check over the rock programmes for Radio Tartasse because they are being recorded on Monday.

When I finally managed to attack the bathroom, it was really slow progress. I’ve only done the first three rows of the ceiling, but then again each one had to be cut and shaped by hand so it isn’t surprising. In fact, because of the way that I’ve done everything, there’s going to be a lot of the ceiling that’s going to have to be cut and shaped by hand.

I’ve also had to fit a supporting strut in the ceiling. There’s going to be a flying shelf in the bathroom and the brackets to hang it from the ceiling have to be fitted, and that’s why I needed the supporting strut.

Apart from that, I had to unload Caliburn ready for my trip to Montlucon tomorrow and you’ve no idea how much I didn’t want to do that in the heat that we were having. But at least the water in the solar shower was 39.0°C so that I could have a really good soak.

Now here’s a thing.

Apparently in the UK, there’s been a minute’s silence in memory of those who were killed in Tunisia. Now – can you remember if we ever had a minute’s silence in memory of anyone who was killed by an IRA terrorist?

This is an old Nazi trick and the Nazis used it to perfection. Whenever an “atrocity” was committed by a hated enemy, they would have these ceremonial minutes’ silence, parade funerals, eulogies and all that kind of thing. They whip up the emotions and subsequently the hatred, and then the Government can go ahead and invade another country to “revenge these dreadful deaths” and the public will be so whipped up by hatred that they can’t see what’s going on. And when you see the outpourings of the Tory Government, that echo the comments that the Nazis made about a death in Danzig or the Sudetenland, you realise just how much the Tories have learned from the Nazis and how much of it they have put into practice.

When it came to whipping up hatred against the Irish Republic or the Vatican over the deaths and other atrocities committed by the IRA, the Government was strangely silent. But when it comes to doing it against brown-skinned people, all of the gloves are off. This tells you all that you need to know about the British Government’s racist policies.

And don’t forget that it was the West that declared war on Islam, with the bushbaby’s “crusade” speech. And just who is so naive to believe that when you declare war on someone and start to fight them, they are not going to fight back?

You couldn’t make that up could you? It just shows you the depths to which the intellectual capacity of the Western world has sunk.

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Thursday 2nd July 2015 – NOW HERE’S ANOTHER THING!

Wide awake and up and about at 06:30.

Yes, I’ve often been up and about at 06:30 and I’ve often been wide awake at 06:30 too, but I don’t recall ever having done both of them at the same time.

Mind you, I blame the Dawn Chorus.

I went to bed last night and left the bedroom window open – the best way that I could think of of keeping cool. And with no curtains, I had the view of a most beautiful moon to send me to sleep. But as dawn broke, we had the cacophony that is Mother Nature, and that was that.

So after an early start and early breakfast, I attacked the radio programmes. Everything is now ready for the next recording session, which is next week in Marcillat and at the beginning of August at Gerzat. And then I need to do a series of programmes for the next session at Gerzat, four more rock shows and then that, dear reader, will be the radio all organised until the beginning of November.

And quite right too because today, I booked my flight to Canada. I’m leaving on August 14 and coming back on October 14th. Now that I have my own vehicle out there in Canada, then nothing can stop me and I intend to make the most of it.

I’m flying out from Lyon this time, as I said that I would, and not by Air Transat, the bucket shop operator either. Strangely enough, Air Transat want an astonishing $1129 – that’s about €1050 – for a direct flight from Lyon to Montreal and return. However if I go via Zurich on the outbound flight (staying overnight, which suits me fine as I haven’t yet had a good wander around the city) and come back with a changeover at Frankfurt-am-Main, it costs me all of … errr … €788 (plus the hotel in Zurich).

And that’s not with a bucket-shop operator either, that’s with … errr … Swissair, one of the world’s best airlines.

How about that?

But returning to our moutons, as the French say, I’ve also reconstituted the radio databases that were lost (and that wasn’t a five-minute job either) and I’ve also built a simple page on Facebook for Radio Anglais. It’s high time that I sorted something out for this and did a little advertising. It seems that Social Media is the way to go these days.

And did I mention Strider? He is of course a Ranger, the Ford Ranger that I own in Canada and whom I shall be making much use of. I was speaking to an insurance company in Canada today on the telephone and they have sorted out some insurance for me. That’s that bit resolved and all Strider needs now is a safety check (that’s pretty much a formality) and then I can register him in my name – especially as I now have an address in Canada thanks to Service New Brunswick.

I’ve had Rosemary on the telephone twice today. The first time for a really good chat which was very nice, and the second time it was a very delighted and enthusiastic Rosemary who called with a little good news. Ages ago I bought a cheap electric pump to pump out the water from the inspection pit and it worked in spades. Rosemary was impressed and bought one to use in her well.

Anyway, to cut a long story short … "hooray" – ed … with all of the dry weather that we have been having, her water butts are empty and so she set to pump up some water from the well with her pump. And so impressed is she with the result that she rang me up to tell me.

I’ve spent much of the afternoon searching again – for the plastic vent covers for the air holes that i’ll be cutting in the bathroom door. I know that I have them, and they were in the bedroom until I emptied it out in February.

Then, I put them somewhere safe so that they won’t be broken, and that is that. Disappeared off the face of the earth. They’ll turn up on Monday though – that I’ll promise you because on Saturday I’ll be buying some more so that I’m not held up.

door shuts cut down floorboard les guis virlet puy de dome franceIn the meantime, talking of cutting, I cut down a floorboard into 25mm strips with the table-top saw and sanded down the edges with the belt sander. With the strips, I made all of the door jambs for the shower room door and the window frame above, and nailed them into position.

I’ve also fitted some quarter-round beading in the corner between the bedroom door and the shower room door so that part is finished too.

Tomorrow, always assuming that I don’t find the missing vents, I’ll be starting on the false ceiling in the shower room. I must remember to cut the holes for the lights and also for the shelf support. And to connect up the final bit of wiring that needs to be done there.

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Wednesday 1st July 2015 – NOW, HERE’S A THING

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I have a solar shower. It’s an old enamel shower base with a wooden frame built around it and infilled with corrugated plastic roofing sheets. On top of it is a black plastic box filled with water and connected to a shower standpipe and covered with an old caravan window.

It all sits outside absorbing the heat from the sun and a couple of times a week I can have a shower. Some times though, I have to put a few litres of hot water into it to bring up the water to a comfortable temperature.

Today, though, this was the first time, so my records tell me, that I have EVER had to put cold water into it in order to cool it down to a comfortable temperature. It’s thoroughly crazy, this temperature. And even with the cold water in there, it was still flamin’ ‘ot.

Mind you, it wasn’t like that this morning. It was all overcast and cloudy. Not good weather at all, even though it was hot. And I’d left the electricity on all night and had the fan going in the bedroom to cool me down while I slept.

I was on my travels too. back at school, school uniform and all. Properly back at school although, strangely enough, I didn’t recognise any of my fellow pupils. One person who was there though was Zero whom I mentioned the other day. What’s she doing at my school?

This morning after breakfast I cracked on with the radio programmes – doing the additional notes for the Radio Arverne sessions. The first lot is half-done and I’ll finish off the rest tomorrow. Then I can start on the second show.

And ironically, by pure and utter coincidence, a major topic has appeared right out of nowhere and landed on my laptop as it were. Something very important and very topical. “A sign from the Gods” I said, and stashed it away ready for use in a week or so.

I was interrupted by the postie who brought me my circular saw. “What happened yesterday?” I asked her, and she gave me a blank look. It seems that although La Poste promises to deliver on a certain date, it receives the parcels at the central tri, in my case at St Eloy, but they don’t come out to the Post Office at Pionsat until the following day. Meantime, to cover their tracks with Amazon, they pretend to have delivered the products the previous day.

Thoroughly dishonest.

After lunch, I attacked the bathroom door. It’s now sanded down so that it fits, a washer stuck in between the top and bottom halves of the hinges so that it doesn’t scrape the floor, and the mortise latch for the door is now fitted and the handles are attached.

Even more so, the closer in the door frame has been chiseled out and the closer frame fitted, so we now have a door that opens and closes properly. This really is progress.

Tomorrow I have to drill out the bottom of the door for the air vent and cut down a floorboard or two to make all of the door jambs. When that’s all done, I can mask everywhere off and varnish all of the wood.

But it is so impressive, this door. I’m well-pleased with that.

Then I had my shower, and went off to Marcillat. It seems that I’ve been co-opted onto the management committee of Radio Tartasse and I’m not sure why. Clearly something’s afoot, and I’m not talking about that thing on the end of my leg either.

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Monday 29th June 2015 – BLIMEY!

Wasn’t it hot today! At one point when we were in Gerzat in mid-afternoon, the temperature on Caliburn’s thermometer was showing 41.3°C outside and off the scale (ie more than 50°C) inside. And it felt like it too.

Yes, we’ve been radioing today, haven’t we?

And I had a dramatic change of plan too. At 08:45 – 20 minutes before I’m due to leave here to head off to Marcillat and Radio Tartasse, I was busy scanning the news – to discover that Chris Squire, the legendary bassist with Yes, had died.

So with just 20 minutes before I had to leave here to record the rock programmes, I was sitting down and totally re-writing the show.

I recorded the rock shows and then Liz came to join me for the normal sessions. That will take us up to the end of July so we could then head back to Liz’s. After lunch (and finishing off the gorgeous dessert that we started yesterday) it was off to the furnace that was Gerzat and Radio Arverne.

We recoded another 5 programmes there, which will take us nicely up to the beginning of September, and another couple of goes should see us well on our way towards the end of the year. But we need to be well in advance with holidays coming up. Liz is off to the UK to see family and then when she comes back, I’ll be off to Canada.

On the way back, I stopped for fuel and a little shopping, and a nice cold drink in view of the heat, and I was back here for 18:20, promptly crashing out for an hour or so as it was far too hot up here to be comfortable.

And talking of being comfortable, I was on my travels again last night, in my nice clean bed. I was with Trixi and a few other people and we were doing a yoga tour of Europe, ending up in the Ukraine and Belarus, before coming back to the Netherlands via Northern Europe. But to cut a long story short … "hooray" – ed … the group of people who had come with us had become fed up and left the tour to the two of us. They went home via the south of Europe and had become snowed in in Northern Italy while the two of us carried nonchalantly on in the north.

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Friday 19th JUne 2015 – I’VE HAD AN INTERESTING DAY

I was actually working this morning when the alarm went off at 08:00. That’s not something that happens every day, so you need to make a note of it. I did!

I was putting the coat of varnish on the underside of the shower-room worktop. The top coat was dry from yesterday evening so I could run it over and begin. I wanted to do that as early as possible so that it would be dry by the end of the afternoon.

Back up here after breakfast, and seeing as I was on a roll, I did another live concert for Radio Anglais, editing and engineering it to make a continuous stream. Now I don’t know why it is but sometimes I’m there for days and I can’t ever set the joins correctly. At other times, it’s as if the joints go together automatically with only the most minimal effort, and today was one of those days.

The only real problem that I did have was with the original engineering and I found myself at times editing out the faults in the original mixing. One was particularly troublesome but I managed to overdub the following track and fade out the previous track where I’d overdubbed it, so that the annoying click is inaudible. Studying the waveforms of the two tracks, you can usually find a length in each tracks that is pretty much identical, and you can superimpose them at that position.

I’ve also restarted a radio project that I had begun in 2013 but with all of the issues that I was having in that year, I had set aside. I’ll tell you more about it at a later date when it’s complete (whenever that might be) but I need some info from Radio Tartasse that won’t be available until the end of the month.

After lunch, I found to my delight that the worktop was dry. So I could turn it back over and put the second coat on the top. This is bang on plan as the second coat always takes ages to dry and it can stay like that until Monday now.

I tidied up the shower room, brushed everything up and removed the debris. It’s looking quite tidy in there now, for a change. I’ve also fitted the missing mounting rail for the worktop (I should have done that yesterday but I forgot) and then I measured up the doorway so that I can make a start in making the door frame on Monday.

This evening it was shopping in St Eloy-les-Mines and if there was a big queue at the checkouts, I was in it. One of those days.

I didn’t buy anything extra, except for the strawberries. A huge punnet for €1:99 and the ones that I ate tonight (there’s enough for three or four days) were delicious. Well, i did have some soya cream that needed using up.

And seeing as how there were no yellow paper collecting bags out on the streets in Montaigut last week, I imagined that tonight would be collection night so I took all of mine down there. But there were none about so it can’t be every fortnight like it is in most places. But the two slugs and a snail enjoyed the run out anyway.

And now, just for a change, I’m going to have a very early night. My efforts this morning have caught me up.

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Friday 29th May 2015 – THIS BACKING-UP …

… of my new laptop wasn’t as straightforward as I had thought it might be. And when I finally did go to bed – at 03:45 in the morning, it was far from finished. Mind you, I was. Keeping my eyes open at this time of night was not as easy as it used to be.

And I was up early to – a good few minutes before the alarm clock went off, and I even had time to make myself some breakfast before setting off to Marcillat-en-Combraille and the radio recordings for Radio Anglais.

Everything went according to plan and we were away quite early too. And that was just as well as I had to go to the garage at St Gervais d’Auvergne with Caliburn. Liz ran me back to her house for lunch afterwards and then Terry and I went down to Riom to sort out the tax payments on his van.

THat was quite straightforward too and we even had time for a run out to Lempdes for Terry to buy a new ladder.

It really was a gorgeous day and we made the most of it, sitting outside having a coffee in the sunshine, and then Liz ran me round to the garage to pick up Caliburn.

All of the mechanism on the brakes is working fine, so the problem isn’t there. If I take Caliburn back on Monday they will strip it all down and check to see exactly what is going on, and why the rear brake isn’t doing what it is supposed to.

The good news is, however, that according to them, there is nothing wrong with Caliburn in the grand. I dida sk them to check it over and their opinion is that he is in good condition for his age with nothing to worry about. The conclusion that I have drawn from all of this is that Barrat Ford in Montlucon will not be able to rely on any more of my custom.

Back here, I carried on with the backing-up and the re-installation of my 3d Program. However, I didn’t get very far. It’s 22:00, I can’t keep my eyes open, I haven’t even done the stats and I don’t care. I’m off to bed before I ……. (zzzzzzzzz)

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Thursday 28th May 2015 – OHH WOW!

New laptop arrived this morning, all 500GB of it. Yet another tough, resilient Acer Aspire (I hope) but a very much different model. Most of the plugs (USB connections, mains lead, HDMI cable, ethernet plug) go in the back where you can’t see them, and isn’t that going to be a recipe for disaster in a confined space?

It has a British keyboard (so I’ve ordered some keyboard stickers) and a British lead on the power pack; which is what I wanted. But trhe charger isn’t an Acer one, but a cheap aftermarket Chinese one; the kind that you buy for €2:99 off eBay. At least though the lead to the power pack is unpluggable so that one can acquire European and North American leads for it. Unfortunately, it’s not a type of lead that I have around here.

And here’s a thing. Many of you will remember me losing a portable hard drive when I was in Brussels 2 years ago. All of my 3D files – tons of the stuff, much of which can’t now be replaced – went with it and started something of a panic that I have still not quite resolved.

But there I was, cleaning out the drive on the 1st Aspire – the one with the broken scren and smashed keyboard that I’ve been using just now – and Lo! And behold! Here are all of the files, and every last one of them too, in all their glory, sitting in a clearly-labelled “TEMP” directory where I must have assembled them when I copied them to the portable drive. I blame old age myself.

But this series of good nights sleeps continued again. Once more, I was well away with the fairies during the night, doing some shopping at a farm shop, patiently waiting my turn in the queue. Finally, it came to me and as I stepped forward, one of the previous customers pushed her way in, handed the assistant a birthday card and started to chat. I had quite a few words to say on this subject, as you can imagine.

So after my early breakfast, I cracked on with the radio programmes and I’ve finally finished despite the numerous distractions. Terry came round for a chat and to make plans for a future project, someone rang up (and I can’t remember who it was now) and I was having a long chat with someone on the internet.

Not only that, the glorious day today saw 180 amp-hours of surplus solar energy into the home-made 12-volt immersion heater. That took the temperature off the scale (ie over 70°C) and with the water in the solar shower at 33°C, I added 5 litres of hot water (that took it to 39°C) and I had the most glorious solar shower. First for a while and now I’m ready for anything, even Radio Tartasse tomorrow morning.

Now I’m backing up all my files and when it’s finished, I’m off to bed.

-1

Monday 27th April 2015 – THE WEATHER …

… was much improved today. We only had 30.5mm of rain.

And after everything that I have said just recently about good nights’ sleeps, I was awake at 06:30 and I couldn’t go back to sleep. In the end I got up (before the alarm too) and vegetated on the sofa for a bit.

Mind you, I’d been on my travels again during the night. I can’t remember who I was with but she was tall and quite well-dressed in a flowing black skirt. We were watching the Grand National and had to cross the course in front of the horses (I had memories of suffragettes and being trampled to death by the King’s horse) and they obligingly split into two packs to have a better go at getting us.

After the horses passed, we climbed into the car to head around the course and into town but we must have missed the course and instead ended up straight in the town. Parking the car, we had to find a cafe so we walked through an old granite building, formerly a cinema but now let into little shop units, and as we passed down the stairs we commented that this would make a good little theatre area.

We were having a coffee on some tables at the side of the street and there in a cafe just a couple of doors down was someone who, in real life, I haven’t given any thought at all but who has appeared a few times just recently in my nocturnal voyages. So what is going on here then? This is the biggest mystery in all of this.

At Radio Tartasse, Violette forgot that we were coming so I had to phone her, and we ended up running quite late. But a coffee afterwards warmed us up and then I came home.

Back here, I’ve done nothing. The weather is cold and miserable and I ended up crashing out for a couple of hours. This led to a very late (like 17:00) lunch and so I’ve had no evening meal again.

I did manage to shin up the scaffolding in the middle of the torrential downpour in order to check on the guttering. Mind you, judging by the speed at which the water was cascading out of the overflow in the waterbutts, everything must have been working fine.

And indeed it was. Everything was nicely aligned and all of the water was flowing right where it ought to flow. I can glue it all together now whenever the weather allows.

Now I’m off to bed to see if I can summon up a better morale and more incentive for tomorrow.

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Monday 23rd March 2015 – THAT STRANGE ROUND GOLDEN THING …

. .. that I glimpsed in the sky yesterday was there for all of the day today. It was the nicest day of the year so far, beautiful and warm, and down by Chatelguyon all of the trees are now in blossom. Spring is definitely on its way, and a couple of warm sunny days will see it here too.

Liz and I were radioing today, starting off at Marcillat and Radio Tartasse. I was there at 09:30 to record the rock programmes and then Liz joined me for the information programmes that we do. Violette was back in charge of the studio today, and you could tell that she’s not quite with it following the passing of Henri.

I had to go to Pionsat on the way back to drop of Simon’s superb floorboard machine (and I gave him a bottle of wine for his trouble) but the boulangère who I wanted to see – she’s back from holiday now but of course Monday is her closing day, so that was a waste of time.

Liz made a salad for lunch and then we went down to Gerzat and Radio Arverne for the next round of programmes there – and it was as we dropped out of the mountains at Chatelguyon that we noticed the trees and the blossom.

We did 5 programmes for Radio Arverne – I need to start to get ahead for the summer or I’ll be catching up with muself if I’m not careful.

Back here, I crashed out for an hour or two. This is becoming something of a habit now.

-2

Sunday 1st March 2015 – I SHOULD HAVE …

… gone to Chamalières this afternoon for the footy as FC Pionsat St Hilaire were replaying a postponed match from before the Winter Break. However, what with one thing or another, I couldn’t summon up the energy to hit the road.

I had a nice lie-in though – 11:00 it was when I left my comfortable bed. And after breakfast I finished off the rock music notes for Radio Anglais and then started on the additional notes for the Radio Arverne broadcasts. This wasn’t as easy as it might have been, because April is one of these 5-week months where I have to write something random to fill in the extra week.

I try to write something about French culture and history for those broadcasts, but my two little booklets couldn’t produce a single useful item that happened in that week in the past and I ended up having to use the internet to search out something. As it happens, that week in April is the anniversary of the date of an attempted coup d’etat against the French government in 1961, and while maybe the French don’t like to talk too much about it, it’s quite an interesting historical event for foreigners, for the coup d’etat hinged upon several other events in French history about which we foreigners know very little.

I’ve not progressed very far though because I’ve been more interested in reading rather than writing, but I’m hoping that I can find half an hour or so tomorrow morning to do some more.

I was on my travels in the night too. I’d actually bought another apartment in Brussels – one that was really nice and comfortable and with a beautiful west-facing balcony where I could sit in the sunset. One of the prime reasons for doing this was to keep in touch with the girl who was working at my solicitors as I had a little crush on her.

In fact, there was a group of us travelling somewhere and we had to meet up at a car park on the edge of town. I resolved to walk to the car park as I knew that she was taking her car and I intended to blag a ride with her. I turned down a couple of offers from other people and sure enough, she turned up but in another car driven by a friend. They agreed to give me a lift, but the girl sat in the back (which spoiled all my plans) and I sat in the front next to the driver.

On arriving at our destination, we all left the car but across the square was a Citroen Traction Avant painted bright yellow. Of course, I had to go off and photograph it (it had turned into a Solex moped by this time) and I lost touch with this girl with whom I had been hoping to spend the day.

Such is life when you travel on your nocturnal voyages.

But was really was significant about today was that this was the first morning of the year when I recall hearing the birds chattering away early in the morning. Spring must be just around the corner.

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